AlternateCounterparts

Details

Voice Actor

First Appearance

Albedo (pronounced "al-bee-do" in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien and "al-bay-do" in Omniverse) is a recurring villain in the franchise. He is Azmuth's former assistant, who, in his attempt to recreate the Omnitrix, turned himself into an imperfect clone of Ben Tennyson. Since then he has been trying to get back to his Galvan form, while also harboring a great hatred and thirst for revenge for Ben Tennyson.

Contents

Appearance

Human Form

He first appeared exactly like Ben and wore exactly the same clothing. But after his and Ben's Omnitrix reacted to each other, it sent out a pulse that damaged his DNA and thus his form, inverting his colors. This made his hair white, his skin slightly paler, his eyes red, his eyebrows black and turned the colors of his jacket from green with white stripes to red with black stripes. His T-shirt was white in Good Copy, Bad Copy and black in his remaining appearances in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien.

Albedo's human form has not changed much in Omniverse though he now has dark circles and a paler skin. His jacket's design is mirrored, with the black stripe with a 10 now on his right side, along with the 10 becoming 01, along with additional pockets. He wears the Ultimatrix on his right hand.

In The Ultimate Heist, he was wearing a red mirrored version of Ben's current T-shirt before changing into his older attire, and in For a Few Brains More, when he transformed into an 11 year old version of Ben, he wears a red and black version of Ben's old shirt with grey pants, while still having his red eyes and white hair.

Galvan Form

In Double or Nothing, he looked similar to Azmuth but with red eyes, a red Galvan tunic with black stripes, paler skin without tendrils or wrinkles and fully open eyes.

In Trouble Helix, in the flashback, he had a robe/tunic with the Omnitrix symbol on it and metal on his legs, neck, and most of his arms. He had a normal Galvan face with green eyes.

Albedo's Omniverse appearance in The Ultimate Heist, he looks like he did in the flashback in Trouble Helix, but the green is replaced by red and he has an Ultimatrix symbol on his back.

Transformations

In Omniverse, whenever Albedo transforms, he looks identical to Ben's transformations (except Galvan form) but with the color scheme of his alien forms reflecting his color scheme, such as Goop or Armodrillo becoming red. In some cases, it's shown that the aliens he transforms into have a reverse pattern in their outfits, and/or have paler or completely different colors to them.

Albedo in his original Galvan form

Albedo disguised as Ben in Alien Force

Albedo's first negative appearance

Albedo disguised as Ben in Omniverse

Albedo with the "01" T-shirt

Albedo's Galvan form in Ultimate Alien

Albedo's Galvan form in Omniverse

Personality

Before he turned against Azmuth, Albedo was an eccentric genius who was very respectful of Azmuth, and was concerned for the safety of others. At the same time, he still showed an arrogant sense of superiority toward others, mostly in terms of intelligence.

In the present day, Albedo is a rude, vengeful and ambitious individual exhibiting sociopathic tendencies. He is unaccepting of Ben's right to wear the Omnitrix, thinking that Ben is just an unworthy human. He bears animosity towards Azmuth, even so much as claiming the credit for the creation of the Omnitrix for himself. Originally being a scientist, he speaks with a larger vocabulary, being more intellectual than Ben, though in a rather cold and condescending manner.

Because he had gained Ben's DNA, Albedo acquired Ben's cravings and habits, which he considers utterly repulsive: He has the same taste in food, scratches himself in inappropriate places, and his left eye twitches whenever he lies. As a running gag of the series, he develops a craving for chili fries, even more than Ben himself, calling it a "human weakness." Originally he had hated this habit, but develops a liking for them, though he denies this and blames it on his human DNA.

Albedo is suspicious and distrustful of others. During his brief team up with Vilgax, he had his suspicions of Vilgax betraying him from the very beginning, which later proved correct after they had beaten Ben and taken his Omnitrix. After absorbing Azmuth's intelligence, he briefly gained an enlightened personality, which led him to realize that destruction was pointless while creation was truly worthwhile. However, he soon reverted to his normal disposition after Azmuth's mind was extracted from him.

History

Background

Albedo finishing the helix

Albedo was a brilliant young Galvan scientist, who served as Azmuth's assistant. In Trouble Helix, he inadvertently had a hand in upgrading Malware into his current form when he was captured and forced to connect the new Helix with the old one. In the flashback, he was an ally of Ben Tennyson and was very loyal to Azmuth as he called him "First Thinker" and even fought for him when Malware approached.

At some point after, Albedo asked Azmuth for an Omnitrix for himself, as he didn't trust "a mere human". Azmuth later fired him, although Albedo claimed he quit working for him. Albedo then used his knowledge of the project to build a copy, and set it to match Ben's. However, when doing so, he didn't know that Ben's DNA would become the default, causing him to lose his Galvan form and become a clone of Ben.

Alien Force

Omnitrix Bio-Feedback

Disgusted by what had happened to him, Albedo traveled to Earth to get the Omnitrix from Ben in Good Copy, Bad Copy, planning on using it to restore his original form.

During his search for Ben, in at least three days, he savagely attacked at least three Forever Knight castles and a DNAlien hive, for the purpose of interrogation to discover Ben's whereabouts, causing the Knights to believe Ben Tennyson was attacking them for no reason and attracting Gwen's and Kevin's attention. When Albedo and Ben eventually met during Albedo's siege at another castle, Albedo pretended to be the creator of the Omnitrix, accusing Azmuth of being a liar, and asked Ben to hand it over. When Ben became suspicious and refused (after Kevin made him notice the twitch on his left eye each time he lied, which Ben has as well), Albedo transformed and attacked him in order to take his Omnitrix by force. After battling him twice, their Omnitrix's locked on with each other, almost causing feedback that could have destroyed the whole galaxy. During the process, Albedo's human form was damaged, resulting in him becoming a negative version of Ben. Azmuth then arrived and destroyed Albedo's Omnitrix, trapping him in his human form as punishment and sending him to an alien prison. Blaming Azmuth and Ben for his condition, Albedo swore to get revenge on them.

In The FinalBattle, Albedo escaped from prison with the help of Vilgax, and stole the Ultimatrix, an incomplete model of the Omnitrix, from Azmuth. Using pieces from his broken Omnitrix, he successfully completed the Ultimatrix and tried to use it in order to transform back to his Galvan form. However, the Ultimatrix was still linked to Ben's Omnitrix, leaving him trapped in his form. Vilgax then offered him an alliance, promising he would let him get Ben's Omnitrix. Though not really trusting him, Albedo accepted and helped him. Despite the alliance being a success, Vilgax quickly double-crossed Albedo and made him his prisoner, using an army of thousands of Humungousaurs against him which defeated Albedo. After the Omnitrix was destroyed, Ben freed Albedo and forced him to hand over the Ultimatrix by triggering the self-destruct command. Though the ship then crashed into one of Earth's oceans, Albedo had escaped.

Albedo returned in Double or Nothing; ever since Vilgax's ship blew up, Albedo was "broke and stranded" and had created his own live action show, 'Ben 10: Live', where Albedo played the role of Ben, and three of Ben's top most popular aliens, Swampfire, Humungousaur, and Big Chill, are played by three actors in costumes: A Methanosian named Swamps (play on Swampfire), a Vaxasaaurian named Hugh (play on Humungousaur), and a Necrofriggian named Fridge (play on Big Chill).

After Albedo sets a soundwave-bomb on the ground, Ben says for Kevin and Gwen to 'deal with the bomb', while he goes after Albedo. Albedo supposedly 'turns into' aliens, which are really just the real aliens replacing him before Ben sees the switch. When Ben battles all three of them, he states to them that he knows they aren't Albedo. After talking to Albedo, telling him to never again do Ben 10: Live, Albedo states that he won't.

They are about to leave, but Hugh comes and lies to the team, saying Albedo was making a bomb that will make everyone on Earth into a copy of Ben. Ben, Gwen, and Kevin go to stop him. Ben is annoyed and uses NRG to blow a hole in the wall. They see Albedo wearing a large Omnitrix symbol on his chest, and Hugh says that it will protect him from the blast. Gwen questions why Albedo would wear it if he already looks like Ben. Ben cuts her off and goes after Albedo, and Kevin and Gwen follow him.

Albedo then yells at the other aliens to get them. NRG defeats Swamps, and Gwen and Kevin defeat Fridge. Then, Hugh comes and tries to defeat NRG, but fails. Ultimate Spidermonkey goes after Albedo, still thinking he was making a bomb that will make everyone on Earth into an exact copy of Ben. While Albedo is working on the "bomb", the whole theater suddenly blows up and Albedo transforms back into his Galvan form.

Albedo's Galvan form (Ultimate Alien)

Albedo revealed that the device he was wearing wasn't a doomsday bomb, but rather, a device to return him to a Galvan as well as making him able to alter his DNA at will. Negative Grey Matter said he wouldn't attack Ben anymore, that is, until he transforms back into human and finds out due to the Ultimatrix interrupting the device's alteration field, he can only be Negative Grey Matter for one second before turning back into his human form.

Hugh tries to take the blame, but Albedo doesn't blame him as Hugh is his friend and instead blames Ben. Albedo transforms into Negative Rath, and battles Echo Echo. When Negative Rath pins Echo Echo down, Echo Echo goes Ultimate Echo Echo and sends sound waves at Negative Rath. This causes Negative Rath to transforms back to human and faint. Hugh said the trio only came to make friends, and that Hugh wanted Ben to stop Albedo so Albedo couldn't leave and would stay as their friend. Ben says that they can have him, but he won't be happy when he wakes up.

Albedo's nightmare

Albedo returns again in Night of the Living Nightmare, where he infects Ben with a Cassiopeian Dream Eater, trapping him into a dream world where he kept being attacked by several of his enemies. Eventually, when Albedo enters the dream posing as Kevin and Gwen in an attempt to take the Ultimatrix, Ben figures out it's him and starts to defeat him.

As Ben starts taking over the dream world, Albedo attempts to put back the Dream Eater, only to slip on a spilled smoothie and accidentally end up being the one infected. In the real world, it was revealed that Ben was never infected, as Albedo attempted to but, unprepared for how messy Ben's room was, inadvertently slipped on a smoothie, thus replaying the same thing that happened in Albedo's nightmare. While they call a Galvan doctor in order to remove the Dream Eater, Albedo is seen inside the dream world, being confronted by some of the Ultimatrix Aliens and fearfully begs them to not to hurt him as they come near.

Omniverse

Albedo reappeared in the present day in The Ultimate Heist. In it, he has been impersonating Ben for several days, after he and Khyber secretly switched his and Ben's places. Albedo was unable to use his alien transformations, due to the fact that the red eyes would give him away to Ben's allies. Even though his ruse was discovered and Ben escaped, Albedo managed to get what he needed from Inspector 13. The devices that he took would not only stabilize his transformations, allowing him to remain in them for as long as he wants, but allow him to once again access the Ultimate Forms, including his own, Ultimate Albedo.

In A Fistful of Brains, Albedo tricks Ben into entering Khyber's disguised ship, capturing him and taking him to Khyber's private hunting area. Beforehand, Albedo had left toenail clippings and hair on several planets, in order to fool anyone who tried tracking Ben by his DNA.

Albedo in his Ultimate form

Ben managed to escape Khyber and confronted Albedo. When Ben pointed out that Albedo had what he wanted, which was the power to return to his true Galvan form, Albedo informed him that he wanted revenge for his humiliation and imprisonment. Ben managed to overcome Ultimate Albedo, only for Ultimate Albedo to declare that Ben hadn't really won. Khyber then revealed that he had captured Azmuth.

In For a Few Brains More, Ultimate Albedo reveals that he intends to use the device he imprisoned Azmuth in, a Cerebral Vortex, to drain Azmuth's intellect, and add it to his brainpower. Despite managing to drain Azmuth's intelligence into an orb form, Ben and company managed to free Azmuth and his intellect; however, after a lengthy battle, which culminated on Earth, Ultimate Albedo managed to escape to Billions Tower, and used its lab to construct another Cerebral Vortex and added Azmuth's intellect to his own, easily subduing them. However, the combined brainpower led to Ultimate Albedo having an epiphany, realizing that destroying them was worthless, as they would still exist somewhere in the omniverse. This distraction allowed Ben to reverse the procedure, taking away Ultimate Albedo's stolen brainpower.

Negative Ultimate Spidermonkey defeated by Atomix

Angered, Ultimate Albedo transformed into Negative Ultimate Humungousaur and began attacking Ben as Bloxx, and pummeling him until he transformed back into normal and Azmuth hit the dial, transforming Ben into a new alien, Atomix, who was easily able to beat Negative Ultimate Humungousaur and Negative Ultimate Spidermonkey. After having his intellect restored, Azmuth punishes Albedo by reconfiguring his Ultimatrix to not only keep him as a clone of Ben but as a clone of the 11 year old Ben Tennyson. Mortified, Albedo cries as he is taken away.

Albedo with the evil Bens

Albedo returned in And Then There Were None, in which he and several other evil Bens join forces with Vilgax and Eon to wipe out every good Ben from the multiverse. However, he along with the other evil Bens was double-crossed by Vilgax and were erased from spacetime by a Chronosapien Time Bomb.

In Malgax Attacks, Albedo and Vilgax infiltrate the Galvan Historical Museum to steal Malware's remains. While Vilgax fights Ben, Albedo attempts to obtain the secrets of Azmuth only to be stopped by Luhley, Blukic, Driba, and Azmuth himself. He uses Ultimate Rath to finish them all off until Azmuth disables the Ultimatrix. Albedo is then sentenced to clean-up for the next "30 Galvan solar cycles", in which he demands sunblock.

Powers and Abilities

Albedo is highly intelligent, being "very smart even for a Galvan",[DM 1] and has a large amount of knowledge about the Omnitrix, having been Azmuth's assistant. He was able to create a copy of the Omnitrix that, despite the mishap of turning him into a clone of Ben, worked perfectly, as well as successfully complete the Ultimatrix by integrating its energy core on his modified former Omnitrix's band. Albedo created the evolutionary function in the Ultimatrix.

Albedo is a very good fighter, as he could easily defeat Gwen and Kevin with just Swampfire and Diamondhead respectively. Albedo was able to easily overwhelm Ben in a hand-to-hand fight while both were human.[1] He was even able to knock Ben out for a short time.

Thanks to a modification that Albedo made to himself through a DNA altering machine, Albedo can alter his DNA at will and change into any species without the need for an Omnitrix. As intended, Albedo also regained access to his true Galvan form as a plus. However, because Ben had interfered, whenever he changes into an alien form, he will always revert to his "Ben" form. Albedo uses a new Ultimatrix to stabilize this power in Omniverse.[DJW 1]

Equipment

Albedo originally had an Omnitrix he had built himself, giving him access to all of Ben's unlocked alien forms. However, his Omnitrix was only working by syncing data from Ben's Omnitrix, inadvertently causing him to assume Ben's form as it was the default. This Omnitrix was destroyed by Azmuth at the end of Good Copy, Bad Copy.

In The Final Battle, Albedo used the Ultimatrix, a new version of the Omnitrix semi-completed by Azmuth and modified by himself. Unfortunately, at the time it was connected to the same database as the Omnitrix, meaning Ben was still the default unless he could reset the Ultimatrix through the Omnitrix. The Ultimatrix was later taken from him by Ben.

In Omniverse, Albedo creates a new Ultimatrix but it is eventually disabled by Azmuth.

Weaknesses

In almost all of his appearances, Albedo's own arrogance is often the source of his downfall and he always underestimates the intelligence and skill of those that oppose him, specifically Azmuth and Ben. His obsession and desire to get revenge on them can also lead him into getting into situations that end in his defeat and make him overlook the potential of others, such as when he all but completely ignored Blukic and Driba (due to their bumbling antics) while they successfully restored Azmuth after he had been destroyed by Albedo.

Chapter Books

Video Games

Albedo appears as a boss on Mor' Otesi tricking Cooper into making an energy core from Taydenite. All of his aliens' eyes and Omnitrix symbol are red. After defeating him in his Humungousaur form (when he has no health left), instead of simply falling over, he'll appear to be selecting another alien form to use, something that he doesn't do (even if you don't hit him at this point). When battling him, he always seems to exclude one move out of his alien's movesets.

In the DS version, after he is defeated, he attempts to use Alien X, but gets locked in an argument with Serena and Bellicus. After the game is beaten, there is a cut scene where he is attempting to leave Alien X while Bellicus and Serena bring up an old argument. Once he is beaten on Hero Mode, he becomes an alternate skin in the DS version of the game.

Evil Way Big came to Earth, in a cosmic storm which he had created, to destroy the Earth and Ben Tennyson. He blew up the Plumber Ships Ben sent to investigate the cosmic storm and a planet close to Earth's solar system with a cosmic ray. Psyphon appeared and lamented that humans may have discovered the primitive bacteria on the planet had Evil Way Big not destroyed it. Both of them then got into a brief argument on whether Pluto was a planet or not, with Evil Way Big supporting the latter viewpoint. Later on, Evil Way Big arrived on Earth and attacked Tokyo, threatening Ben to bring the Potis Altiare to him or Earth will be destroyed. As Ben transformed into Humungousaur, Evil Way Big grabbed his tail, spun him and then flung him into a nearby lake. Ben reverted to his human form and the Potis Altiare connected to the Ultimatrix. Ben then transformed into Way Big, defeated Evil Way Big and blasted him to the moon with a cosmic ray.

Soon after, Jimmy Jones informed Ben that the new trailer for the new Sumo Slammers movie Sumo Slammers 2: Electric Slammeroo just hit the net and he was going to send him a link. Ben apologized for suspecting Jimmy to be spying on him and revealed that he was monitoring the Evil Way Big he just threw into space and he found that the Evil Way Big landed on the moon and disappeared. It is then revealed that Evil Way Big is actually Albedo transformed into a To'kustar, who sat up, coughed and dusted himself. He had a small device in his left hand which resembled a lightbulb connected to a broken pipe thing, which he threw to the ground, stood up facing the earth, and yelled "Curse you Ben Tennyson! I spent a year and a day alone in that cosmic storm, incubating the one single molecule of To'kustar DNA I managed to salvage back when you blew up the Omnitrix and left me for dead. Now I'm stuck on this dusty rock, in this disgusting form again. And there are no Chili Fries! This could not get any worse." Just as he finished saying that, he turned to the right slightly only to find Lu wanting payback for destroying the top part of his nearby moon base while he was Evil Way Big. He was then attacked by Lu's wrench.

Etymology

The term "albedo" is the name for the alchemical effect of something whitening. Albedo, upon being stuck in a negative image of Ben, was left with white hair, referencing his name. The term Albedo also refers to a person's unconscious personality or anima/animus. An albedo is also the term for the proportion of light reflected by the surface of a planet or moon. Likewise, Albedo is a darker "reflection" of Ben.

Trivia

When Albedo was working for Azmuth in creating the Omnitrix, Albedo worked on the Omnitrix's software package.[DM 2]

Just like Ben, Albedo likes chili fries, but not because of Ben's DNA. Albedo is just blaming it on Ben.[DM 1]